Motorcycle helmet laws found effective
August 30, 2006A U.S. study suggests states not requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets may be contributing to unnecessary deaths, hospitalizations and disabilities.
"Almost 9 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths are attributed to motorcycle riding," said Dr. Jeffrey Coben, director of the Center for Rural Emergency Medicine at West Virginia University. "In 2004 more than 4,000 people were killed in motorcycle accidents -- an 89 percent increase since 1997 -- and more than 76,000 were injured."
Coben and colleagues compared motorcycle injuries in states with helmet laws with those in states with little or no helmet regulation.
They found states without universal helmet laws reported a higher number of motorcycle crash victims hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of brain injuries: 16.5 percent vs. 11.5 percent in states with mandatory use laws. The in-hospital death rate among states without mandatory helmet laws was also higher -- 11.3 percent vs. 8.8 percent.
The study appears online in the "Articles in Press" section of the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
-
Motorcycle crashes could influence helmet laws, study finds
Mar 11, 2011 |
not rated yet |
1
-
Head injuries increase after motorcycle helmet law repeal
Jun 12, 2008 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
5
-
Motorcycle helmets reduce spine injuries after collisions
Feb 09, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
US falls behind other nations in reducing traffic fatalities and injuries: report
Nov 16, 2010 |
3 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Black motorcyclists -- even in helmets -- more likely to die in crashes
Sep 23, 2010 |
not rated yet |
4
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
More news stories
Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...
6 hours ago |
4.9 / 5 (9) |
0
|
Both maternal and paternal age linked to autism
Older maternal and paternal age are jointly associated with having a child with autism, according to a recently published study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
11 hours ago |
4 / 5 (2) |
0
|
New understanding of DNA repair could eventually lead to cancer therapy
A research group in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta is hoping its latest discovery could one day be used to develop new therapies that target certain types of cancers.
10 hours ago |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
0
|
Curry spice component may help slow prostate tumor growth
Curcumin, an active component of the Indian curry spice turmeric, may help slow down tumor growth in castration-resistant prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a study from researchers ...
12 hours ago |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
0
|
Human cognitive performance suffers following natural disasters, researchers find
Not surprisingly, victims of a natural disaster can experience stress and anxiety, but a new study indicates that it might also cause them to make more errors - some serious - in their daily lives. In their upcoming Human Fa ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
8 hours ago |
4 / 5 (1) |
0
Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets
Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.
Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)
The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.
New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission
Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...
The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males
A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...
Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...
New power source discovered
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.
